Cape Town in South Africa is experiencing serious water issues. Long lasting drought combined with less rain than usual is depleting the city’s water supply. Public and private stakeholders are currently coming together to find a solution.

16 April. The day where it is estimated that Cape Town’s water supply will be turned off until rains arrive. This will leave the South African city’s 3.5 million inhabitants in a situation, where they will have to line up for water at designated water points across the city to receive a small measure of water.

Already now, however, people are coping with the consequences of severe water scarcity, as the water is already now rationed, leaving each inhabitant with just 50 litres of water per day, in comparison Danish newspaper Politiken assesses that Danes on average consume 106 litres of water per day.

Local authorities, water utilities and other key stakeholders are working around the clock to find possible solutions to handle and remedy the issue, including Grundfos.

“We’re of course following this situation closely, and we are in dialogue with our own partners and customers, as well as the authorities, in order to find out what we can do to try and resolve this crisis,” says Hennie Hanekom, Branch Manager in Cape Town at Grundfos.

The water crisis is the result of a long-lasting drought, which in combination with a three-year period where the area around Cape Town received much less rain than usual, is depleting the water supply, effectively drying up the dams around the city.

The water crisis is not limited to Cape Town, as towns around the metropolis are likely to see Day Zero before 16 April.